Drakensang - At the Flow of Time

Or however you'd want to translate the title of this Drakensang prequel. Stream of Time? River of Time? Whatever.

Here is the info gathered from a new Gamestar Preview:

- Set 23 years before Drakensang (1009 BF), again in the region of Kosh.
- Its the same time period the Realms of Arkania games were set in.
- The dwarve Forgrimm, a character from Drakensang, plays an important role
- Kladdis, another Drakensang character, also plays a role (as a baby)
- The party travels arround on a shipa along the Great River, the ship serves as the games hub
- The journey begins in Ferdok, the main city of Drakensang, although you can't explore it anymore
- The journey takes you to several places along the Great River
- You start the journey on the ship on its way to the small town of Nadoret, where you will receive your final examination
- Also on the ship from the beginning: Forgrimm
- Two new archetypes (character-classes): The geode (think dwarven druid) and the Gjalska barbarian
- In Nadoret you meet the female half-elf Fayris who works for the Middenrealmian intelligence
- questions of loyality become more important then in Drakensang, the game is supposed to be more "morally grey"
- The party members will be more chatty, they'll comment more often on situations and will also talk with each other
- A romance is planned
- There will be less then 10 possible party members
- You'll meet characters you know from Drakensang, but apart from Forgrimm none of them will join your party
- All dialogue will be spoken
- Once you have discovered an important place in an area you can just jump there through your map (you don't have to walk long distances as much as in Drakensang)
- The areas of the game will be "more compact"
- you can return to once visited areas anytime, sometimes there will be new quests in "finished" areas
- The game will have approximately 40 gameplay-hours
- replayability will be higher
- The plot will leave more possibilities to decide for one side or another, although all possible plot-lines will reunite later and there will only be one ending
- talents that weren't used as often in Drakensang are supposed to be more important
- 3 TDE authors revise the script, and test it for setting-compatibility
- The journey leads the party into elven settlements, pirate villages, snowy highlands and into underground mines, but it always leads back to the river, the central connecting element
- There will be new recipes, weapons, armor, etc.
- the will be miracles, spells for priests that can boost certain attributes
- tHere will be new combat-maneuvers
- enemies will have more specific strengths and weaknesses (like immunities)
- trees are now hand-made, and not made with speed-tree like in Drakensang

Thanks. You did what I had in mind, too. (But unfortunately I'm seemingly too lazy for that. )

Originally Posted by ulixes
- Kladdis, another Drakensang character, also plays a role (as a baby)

The girl's name in the English version is Galddys, not Kladdis. Was she called Kladdis in the dutch version?

- questions of loyality become more important then in Drakensang, the game is supposed to be more "morally grey"
- The party members will be more chatty, they'll comment more often on situations and will also talk with each other
- A romance is planned

COOL. More interaction with companions is welcome.

- There will be less then 10 possible party members

How sad.

- All dialogue will be spoken

COOL, again.

- Once you have discovered an important place in an area you can just jump there through your map (you don't have to walk long distances as much as in Drakensang)

QuickTravel? Oblivion? I'm not sure if I like it. Lets see how it turns out in the end.

- The areas of the game will be "more compact"

Not sure again. What do they mean by "compact"? Does it mean smaller? Most areas in Drakensang WERE small (except Tallon area). Making them smaller wouldn't be nice.

- you can return to once visited areas anytime, sometimes there will be new quests in "finished" areas

Now this is what I like.

- The game will have approximately 40 gameplay-hours

Too short.

- replayability will be higher
- The plot will leave more possibilities to decide for one side or another, although all possible plot-lines will reunite later and there will only be one ending
- talents that weren't used as often in Drakensang are supposed to be more important

COOL. Again.

- The journey leads the party into elven settlements, pirate villages, snowy highlands and into underground mines, but it always leads back to the river, the central connecting element
- There will be new recipes, weapons, armor, etc.

More diversity will be welcome. Drakensang has quite a limited set of weapons/armor.

- trees are now hand-made, and not made with speed-tree like in Drakensang

Ironic. SpeedTree was advertised as one of the strong points of Oblivion.

Originally Posted by blackcanopus
The girl's name in the English version is Galddys, not Kladdis. Was she called Kladdis in the dutch version?

No, in the German version, it's the original name.

Ironic. SpeedTree was advertised as one of the strong points of Oblivion.

Well, Oblivion seemingly is not an European game … Someone I think at Radon Labs or somewhere else said that Speedtree does trees that are not European.

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
Well, Oblivion seemingly is not an European game … Someone I think at Radon Labs or somewhere else said that Speedtree does trees that are not European.

I didn't look at it from that point of view. Now that you mention it, I remember I am spending too much time in front of my PC and have forgotten the difference between American and non-American trees. I should get out more.

Radon Labs wants to have mixed forests with trees with strong trunks. Plus they want to integrate them into the world, put a tree house on top, for example. It seems that's impossible with SpeedTree.

Some of your other points have already been discussed in the other thread on the same topic.